Tsukiki's Pastime
by XoXKeii-chanXoX
Summary: Mai and the others recieve a case about a woman claiming to have spiritual experiences in her house, and everyone being effected by it except for her 9-year-old daughter, Tsukiki. Sequel to Urado Strikes Back! Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

_**Ok…you guys wanted another. So here we go. I'll be writing this story more that my other one, seeing as I'm not getting many reviews on it…V_V *sad face* So, again, things are being made up as I go along. It's more fun that way, and things come as a surprise even to the writer! Lol. So, without further adieu, I give you "Tsukiki's Pastime."**_

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><p>"What brings you here today, Miss…?" Naru started."Kobayashi Takara." The lady finished. "You can just call me Takara-san."<p>

"Takara-san… Can you explain to me the details of the case, please?" Naru asked. She nodded in reply before starting her explanation.

"We just recently moved into a new house a little over a year ago. The sellers were very adequate on selling the house, and gave us a very good deal on it, so we decided to take it. Little did we know, the reasoning behind this. For a couple months now, strange things have been happening inside that house. Such as doors opening and closing on their own, strange sounds at night, and apparitions. Even one of my maids stated that she was pushed down the main staircase and had to be sent to the hospital for a severe injury to her arm. We've all seemed to be effected by this. My husband won't even stay in the house when he's off of work. He'll go outside and sit in the garden, or go around town with one of his co-workers. And my 15-year-old daughter doesn't like being alone anymore in the house. The only one who doesn't seemed bothered by the haunting at all is my 9-year-old daughter, Tsukiki. Although, she spends the majority of her time in her room…So I don't see her that often except at meal-times. I know there isn't much evidence to prove that there is indeed a haunting, but if you would at least come over and prove that statement, just to clear things up, I will be very grateful." She then stood up and bowed politely, lingering over before Naru spoke up.

"We'll be over first thing tomorrow morning. 9 o'clock." He said "Have a room prepared for our base, and two separate rooms in case we do have a case here and need to stay at the house." Takara-san just looked up and smiled lightly, before bowing again and leaving.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Naru?" Monk said. "I mean, we just got out of a case, and Mai may still need to recover. Is everything all work to you?" Monk said this with a glare towards Naru.

"I agree. It may be wise to hold off on cases for a while until she fully recovers." Ayako added. Everyone else just nodded.

"So, we should just not show up tomorrow when we promised the client we would be there? You've got to be joking…" Naru said.

"I'm just saying, we should let Mai take a break!" Monk said, stiffening up in his seat. Why is everyone worried about my well-being? I came to work today didn't I?

"Um…guys?" I said between Monk's shouting and Naru's smart-ass come-backs. They stopped and everyone looked my direction. "I don't mean to interrupt…but isn't it my decision on when I work and when I don't? I feel fine. I came to work today, didn't I?" I said this with a smirk. Everyone else just looked at each other with concern before turning back to me and nodding.

"Well…now that that's settled, let's start gathering all the equipment we'll need to investigate tomorrow. We'll have Lin stay here and wait for my call in case we need the full van of equipment. Let's go." He said this as we all stood up and went to work. I'm glad to be back on another case!

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><p>I woke up the next morning and got up lazily. I staggered over to my dresser to get dressed when I noticed the time…7:25 A.M.<p>

"Oh no!" I exclaimed as I rushed to get my clothes on, threw on my shoes and my coat, and rushed out the door. I was supposed to be at the office by 7:30 to leave. The trip is an hour and a half long, and I wouldn't want Naru to get annoyed from the get-go and have to ride in a car with him for almost two hours. I darted down the street hoping to get there just in time. Good thing I only lived a couple blocks away from the office, or I would have been SCREWED...

By the time I actually reached the office, it was 7:32. Naru and Monk were already packed in the car waiting for me to get there. I ran up to the car and jumped in, slumping over the equipment piled in the back of the seat, out of breath from the run.

"You're late…" Naru scolded.

"I'm sorry…My alarm clock didn't go off this morning. It won't happen again…" I looked out the window as Monk started up the car and started our long drive to the destination. This is exactly what I was trying to avoid…oh well. I decided to sleep most of the way, as to not have to listen to Monk and Naru arguing over something stupid. Sleep came easily, since I got up and ran out of my house so fast, sleep finally caught up. I was asleep instantly.

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><p><em>It was pitch black. I couldn't see anything, really. I looked around, trying to find some means of life other than my own, but failed. I then felt the ground beneath me disappear, and I was freefalling in an instant into the dark abyss. Suddenly, I hit the ground…hard. I wretched as I attempted to get back up, but was knocked back down by a strong force.<em>

_"STUPID, WOMAN!" a voice yelled. "YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT! YOU AND THAT BLASTED DAUGHTER OF YOURS ARE BOTH GOING TO HELL!" I watched, in pain and fear of what might happen next, so I just lay there, waiting to see what he was doing._

_"Please, Daddy!" called a small, but frightened voice. "Don't hurt Mommy anymore! Please!" I looked over to see a small girl with pink hair, and a blue sundress on, curled up in a corner with tears streaming down her face. She was holding a small, blood-stained rag doll. The man looked over at the frightened girl and snickered._

_"Who then?" He said with a sneer. "Who shall I hurt? Should I hurt you, little Miyami?" He held up a knife. The girl cringed with fear and started whimpering. I couldn't bear it anymore. I got up slowly, still in pain, and started walking slowly over to the perpetrator._

_"Mai! No!" Called a voice. I stopped in my tracks."Gene?" I said. The man turned around quickly and just glared at me._

_"I thought I told you to STAY THE HELL DOWN!" He ran towards me with the knife._

_"Mai! Wake up! Now!" Gene yelled. A bit too late though, as the sharp pain of the knife ran right into my side. I yelped in pain as I fell to my knees in pain. I wasn't dead, for I could see everything going on, but couldn't move, as I lay in a pool of dark red blood._

_"MOMMYYYY-" the little girl's scream was cut off by the sound of the knife going right into her chest. I saw her fall over, her doll still in her hands, in her own pool of blood. The man, in turn, went completely insane, and turned the knife on himself, leaving 3 bodies laying in the middle of the floor, dead. Everything went completely black after that._

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><p>I found myself jerking upright at the sight of the dream, yelping a bit, as I still felt a bit of pain from the knife going into my side.<p>

"Mai? What's wrong?" Monk asked, looking in his rear-view mirror. Naru quickly turned around and looked at me with concern in his eyes. I just shook my head a bit and sat back in the seat.

"Nothing…" I said. "Just a weird dream…How far away are we?" Changing the subject.

"Not far, now." Monk answered. "Just about another 10 minutes or so."

"Alright." I answered. I sat up and watched everything outside rush by, thinking of the events in my dream, and wondering if they were related to the case. If so, I think we'll have our work cut out for this time…

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><p><em><strong>There ya guys go! Sorry for not starting it sooner. I've been so caught up in Ouran High School Host Club…kind of obsessed with it. Lol. Hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! See ya guys next chapter! Ciao!<strong>_

_**Mai: Yay! I didn't get hurt in the first chapter this time!**_

_**Me: Actually…yes you did. In your dream, remember?**_

_**Mai: DAMMIT! Ugh…ok. R&R and Comment, Pleeeaaase! ^_^**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Ok, so I wanted to put up two chapters today, seeing as I'm probably gonna be sleeping most of the day away tomorrow since I'll be out until probably 3 in the morning…ugh…so, here's the second chapter. Hope you guys like! Enjoy!Disclaimer: I own no Ghost Hunt-related items…sadly enough…YOU DON'T NEED TO RUB IT IN MY FACE! STOBBIT! ." Wow…sorry…spazzed out a bit…On to the story now! *runs away, face a bit flushed***_

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><p>We got to the house at exactly 9 o'clock. <em>Wow…he wasn't kidding when he said 9 o'clock…<em> I thought to myself… I chuckled at my thought as I got out of the car, stumbling over my feet a bit, before running into Naru as he caught me in mid fall.

"Are you that clumsy that you manage to somehow trip over air?" He smirked. I jerked away from him, glaring at him hard.

"No! I am not!" I stomped over to the other side of the car to where Monk was. He chuckled to himself at the scene as well. I just glared his way and he regained his composure.

We decided to start walking towards the were almost at the house when we saw a little girl standing off to the side by the pond. She was expressionless, and didn't even take notice to us. She had shoulder-length brown hair, and was wearing a black school-girl dress. I decided to call over to her. _**(A/N: Picture that inspired this look on my profile.)**_

"Um…excuse me! Hello?" I looked at her. She just looked our way, and walked in the house slowly, face still expressionless. "Well that was weird…" I said out loud. Then we heard another voice.

"Hey! Up here!" the voice called. We looked in the direction and noticed a girl sitting in a nearby tree. "You guys are with Shibuya's group, right? Hang on a sec!" she did a back flip off the one branch and landed on her feet, before running over to us. She was dressed oppositely of the girl we had just witnessed. She had short, brown hair which only came down to about the middle of her ears, and was messy. She wore a purple shirt, with a white jacket over top of it, jeans, and a pair of one-star converse shoes. She reminded me of a tomboy in a way…_**(A/N: Again, picture that inspired this look, on my profile, except for the hair. The hair in the picture is actually really long, and I don't like long hair on tomboys. So, I cut it. ^_^ Lol)**_

"Name's Jun!" she said with a smile. Monk and I both went "Woah" when she did this.

"Heh…what's wrong?" She smiled shyly. Monk and I both just shook our heads. I said,

"Nothing! That was just really cool, what you just did right now when you jumped off of the tree branch." I complimented. She just looked at me like I was speaking nonsense.

"It's not that hard…" Jun said with a smirk. "Now, I'm sure you guys want a tour of the house, right? Mom's out right now, and Dad's on a business trip. So it's just us girls in the house for the time being. We've arranged a room for you to use as a base, at your request of course, and two more rooms side-by-side on the second floor for your use. You may use them freely." She said.

"Mom told me to show you guys the places with the most activity, so we'll start with my room." Jun stated, and walked towards the house before stopping and turning towards us with a serious face. "Oh, and one more thing. Try not to get too involved with my sister." She said this with the creepiest tone of voice I've ever heard."Um…why, may I ask?" I asked, a bit scared to hear the reasoning behind her statement. Her face turned back to her obnoxious, tomboy self.

"No reason!" She smiled, put her hands in her pockets, and walked us into the house, leaving us all thinking about the past statement.

"Woooow!" I exclaimed. "Your house is beautiful, Jun!" I said as we were entering the main hall right inside the door.

"Thanks! Although, I think my Mom overdid it a bit with the décor…I don't like all this artificial crap hanging around. Like the artificial bonsai tree over there, and the peacock feathers hanging on the wall…it's all artificial…I wish my mom had some sort of authentic nature in her… I love being outside, with nature, it's all so peaceful." She frowned. "At least…it was, until all this activity started. Now it's just an emotional nightmare for all of us…" I placed my hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"Don't worry, Jun." I said. "We're here to help." I smiled widely at her. She returned it, and started leading us upstairs.

She led us down a hallway which had paintings of scenery and plants hanging on the walls. They looked relatively new, so I assumed that they had just purchased them. We stopped at a door that looked like a cross between blue and green, and had a simple sign on it saying "Jun's Room." She opened the door slowly, as if expecting something to jump out at her.

"Well, here we are." She gestured towards the room. It had light blue walls, with white trim around the edges. There was a small desk in the corner, with a dresser up against the window on the other side of the room. Her other window, had a window seat built in it, with a bookshelf on the right side of the window. Her bed was up against the wall next to the dresser, with simple dark blue covers, and a book laying in the middle of the bed. "It's not much…but it's a place where I can just be myself. Although, there has been quite a lot of activity in here." She explained.

"What kind of activity?" Naru asked. "Mai, take temperature readings while Jun-san explains." He ordered.

"No problem." I complied and started taking temperature readings in said room.

"Well…" Jun started. "I was sitting at night on my bed reading, when I noticed a shadow on my wall. I brushed it off as just a shadow from something in my room. But, when I looked away for just a second, I looked back and noticed that it was gone. I thought it was my imagination, when I looked over to my other wall, and noticed it was now there. I thought something might happen if I looked away, so I stared at it for about 10 minutes at the most, until finally it moved out of the room and into the hallway. I stayed in my room for a while, and nothing seemed to happen after that. Then, I heard knocking on the wall behind me, turned around, and saw a little girl's face coming through the wall. I screamed then, making my mother run into the room to check up on me. But when I told her the story, she said there was nothing behind the bed. I confronted my Tsukiki about it, but she said she wasn't up and about at that time of night." She cringed at the memory.

I shuddered at the thought of seeing a little girl's face coming through my wall at night. The thermometer beeped and I recorded the temperature on a chart on a clipboard.

"Was there anything else that's happened in here?" Naru asked.

"Yeah, after that incident, my bookshelf will collapse on it's own, my computer will turn on by itself, and my door will slide open and shut at night." _**(A/N: I made it so that her door, and only her door, slid open like a traditional Japanese door would.) **_She explained all this, before having us see the rest of the house. She showed us a number of rooms in particular that had more activity in them than others. When she finished, I realized something…

"Hey, Jun?" I asked. She turned around to me.

"Yeah? What?" She asked.

"What about your Sister's room?" I asked, afraid that she might yell at me for asking to go in the one person's room she warned us not to get involved with. "Has there been any activity in there?" She looked up the staircase as if to look at said person's room.

"I don't know." She said with a straight face. "I don't really know much about my sister anymore. She spends so much of her time alone, I don't know half the things I should about her. She spends almost all day in her room, and then goes out to the pond every once in a while to look at the scenery, but that's about it. When I try to talk to her, she doesn't respond. So, I've given up on trying to speak to something that won't answer." Her voice got a bit angry with her last statement, but she quickly jumped back to her perky self.

"Well! Have you guys seen enough?" She quickly asked with a bright smile.

"Yes. We'll be setting up all of our equipment in the room you've reserved. We're going to need it all for this case. Thank you for your time. You may go." Naru stated.

"Um…if it's alright with you guys, would it be at all possible for me to stay and help out with things? I know a lot about paranormal investigations, and could be a great help to your investigation!" She said all this in hopes of getting a positive answer.

"I guess you could help us with research and setting up equipment with Mai. Fine." Naru said, not looking away from some files he was looking at. Jun smiled widely at this and bowed politely before sitting on the window seat in the room looking out into the garden with the pond.

"Hey, Jun." I asked. She turned her head and smiled at me. "You wanna help me set up cameras in the rooms you mentioned? Naru made a list for us. Then we can come back and wait for the rest of the equipment to arrive!" Jun's jaw just dropped.

"There's MORE equipment than this? Wow…your boss doesn't waste any time when it comes to work. Sure, I'll help!" It's true. We had a lot more equipment with us besides some thermometers and a couple cameras. The only thing we didn't have were the screens to project the video footage on and the other equipment to listen to the sounds we collect. She jumped up, grabbed some cameras and microphones, and headed upstairs with me to place them in the rooms in question.

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><p>We finished putting the last camera and microphone up and started heading back to base. We got about halfway down the hallway when we heard a door open. We both looked in the direction it came from, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. We continued walking down the hall when we heard it again, only closer. We both spun around again, this time seeing a small figure at the end of the hallway up against the window. Jun scowled.<p>

"Tsukiki! How many times must I tell you not to scare me like that!" She shouted. Just then, the figure rose off the floor and started floating towards us. We both cringed at the sight and started slowly walking backwards. When the figure finally came into the light, it was a horrifying sight to see.

"Jun! Run!" I yelled. She complied, and I stood my ground.

"Mai! What are you doing! Come on!" Jun yelled back. I just stood there staring at this apparition. I knew it instantly when I first saw it. It was the little girl in my dream. She had the pink hair, and the blue dress on, but instead of holding a regular rag-doll, the doll looked like it had been sewn from different dolls, making it look evil-looking. It still had blood stains on it, along with the girl herself. I raised my hands and made the seal of the Immovable One.

"Nau-Maku-San-Manda, Bazara-Dan-Kan! (X2)." I started, but the spirit just got closer and eventually got right in my face as I started the Nine cuts."Rin, Pyoh, Toh-" I was cut off by the spirit picking my up and pinning me against the wall by my neck. It was choking me to death.

"MAI!" I heard Jun call. Then I heard something I thought I would never hear come out of Jun's mouth.

"Rin! Pyoh! Toh! Shah! Kai! Gene! Retsu! Zai! Zen! BE GONE!" She slashed her hand one final time, making the spirit retreat back to wherever it came from. It wasn't exorcised, but at least it was gone for the time being. I fell to my knees as I was held up by Jun.

"Mai! Are you alright?" She asked, concern flooding her voice.

"I'm fine…I've been through worse, believe me." I smiled shyly. "At least the others didn't hear that, or Monk would have been freaking out on me stating that I can't do this anymore, and that he's taking me home first thing tomorrow." I laughed out loud and was helped up by Jun.

"We still have to explain to them that we saw her. Not the part about you getting practically choked to death, but just the fact that we saw her." Jun suggested. I nodded and we both went back downstairs to explain things to the others. I noticed a van out in the driveway.

"Looks like Lin's here with the remaining equipment. Good, he needs to hear about it too." I said.

"Lin?" Jun looked at me with a confused look. I just chuckled.

"Heh…you'll get to know everyone on the team soon enough, Jun." I patted her playfully on the shoulder and started laughing. She chimed in eventually as we were going down the stairs. We got to the door and as if we both thought the same thing, we both took a deep breath at the same time.

"Well, here we go…" I said. Jun nodded, and we opened the door, waiting to explain everything to the guys.

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><p><em><strong>Well, there ya go! Ok, reviews are key for this chapter…I feel like I did a lot of rambling on this one…And, I didn't go all crazy on the attacks this time. So, please, please, PLEASE, review a lot on this chapter and criticize me all you want. Criticism is good for the soul…no pun intended…^.^;<strong>_

_**Mai: Yay! I have a buddy already on this case! R&R and Review pleeeaaase! ^_^**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**So, yeah, hope you guys have been enjoying the story so far. Been trying to finish this as fast as possible…although, it's taking a toll on my mental stability as well…Oi…so, here ya go. Next chapter! Ciao!**_

_**Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Ghost Hunt. Sadly enough…**_

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><p>"What do you mean 'You saw the ghost'?" Monk exclaimed. I had to hold my ears due to how loud his voice had gotten.<p>

"Just like I said, Monk!" I yelled back. "We saw the ghost. We were on our way back from setting up the equipment, when we saw it at the end of the hallway. We thought something bad would happen if we moved, so we started a little staring contest. After a period of exchanging looks, it disappeared. Nothing else happened." I argued.

"Oh?" Said Monk. "So, how do you explain that bruise that goes around your neck? Looks like a little more than 'nothing' had happened, Mai." He glared at me hard, which I in turn glared back. I hated it when he acted like this. I couldn't take it anymore.

"So, what if it attacked us?" I yelled. "If I would have told you that it did, you would have freaked out and made me sit this one out!" I backed away into the door, tears welling up in my eyes. "I hate being treated like the weakest one of this team! Even if I discovered my Qigong powers last case, you still wouldn't let me help any more than just setting up equipment!" I paused, tears now streaming down my face. "I guess I'm just a WORTHLESS PIECE OF SPACE ON THIS TEAM!" By this time, everyone was staring at me, sadness crossing their faces, except for Naru and Lin of course, who watched from the other side of the room. I ran out the door, tears running down my face. I didn't want to talk to anyone.

I ran outside faster than I had originally thought. By the time I had noticed where I had gone, I was already by the pond outside. I dropped to my knees by the pond and just sobbed to myself. I laid like that for the longest time, before I felt a small hand rest on my shoulder. I turned my head quickly, expecting to see Ayako or Jun. Instead, I saw little Tsukiki. Looking ahead, expressionless, she opened her mouth to speak.

"Crying will get you nowhere…" She quietly stated. "You must learn to be stronger." She finished. I then noticed a doll in her arms that slightly resembled a familiar doll I had just recently witnessed.

"Um…Can I ask…Where did you get that doll?" I asked quietly. She just looked down at me and gestured for me to follow her. I was hesitant at first, remembering what Jun had said about her "lifeless" sister, but followed her anyway.

We went back inside, sneaking by the room we called "base." We ventured up the staircase and went down the very hall that the spirit had attacked us only moments before now. As memories of the event flooded my mind, I was unconsciously led to Tsukiki's bedroom.

She opens her door to reveal her simple, yet fascinating room. Her walls were covered with paintings of scenery and exotic plants and flowers. There was a fireplace on the main wall, and everything was a dark lavender color. Her bed was draped with silky, white sheets, and canopied with the same. But, what stood out the most, was the vast collection of hand-made dolls lined up on shelves on all of the walls. There were multiple levels of shelves, each containing what looked to be different sizes, and shapes of dolls.

"Do you like them?" She said. I thought I had spotted a faint smile which faded as quickly as it came.

"They're all very nice!" I said. "Did you make all of these?"

"Mostly. I had a bit of help on each of them from a friend." She said. "I have something I want to show you." She walked over to what looked like a sewing table, with a rag doll laying on it. Half-completed. She held it up."I was inspired by you today when we first saw each other." Tsukiki stated. "I wanted to do something right away about it. That is why I didn't react to seeing you." She admitted.

"I see. Well, I feel honored, thank you!" I smiled warmly at her, as she returned a very small smile of her own.

"You're welcome. By the way, I don't believe I got you name?" Tsukiki said.

"Mai. Taniyama Mai." I said. She smiled a bit wider and went over to write something down on a piece of paper on her desk.

"So, what do you do most of the day-" I was cut off by the door flying open and a frantic Jun standing in the doorway.

"Tsukiki! I told you! No getting involved with any of my friends!" She scolded. "Mai…out. NOW!" She finished with a glare. I quickly complied, and ran out the door. Jun quickly followed, shooting a menacing glare in Tsukiki's direction. Tsukiki returned the glare and turned back to the doll she had showed me.

"I thought I told you not to get involved with Tsukiki!" Jun yelled. I was a little flustered at how she was acting. She never actually told us why we weren't allowed to be involved with her.

"With all respect, you never actually told me your reasoning behind warning us about her." I said calmly. "Does it have to do with the case?" I asked. Jun just looked away quickly.

"I don't think it has anything to do with the case…it's just that, whenever people meet her, something always ends up happening to them." Jun stated. "Our one maid wasn't even acquainted with Tsukiki when she went in to clean her room the one day, while she was still in there. She apologized for intruding, but had angered Tsukiki even more. Later in that day was when that maid was pushed down the staircase while carrying 2 baskets of laundry down." she said all this and decided to change the subject. "Let's go back downstairs. Everyone's sorry for what happened, including myself. They want to apologize. Let's go." She turned and started walking down the hall. I followed, keeping everything she had just said in mind.

Back in Tsukiki's room, she was just about done with her doll. The doll was a replica of none other than…Mai.

"Hehehe…You'll make a perfect addition to my collection. Just as soon as everything works out…you'll see, Jun. You'll understand my pain soon enough." She finished with a quiet, but evil laugh. She imprinted the name "Taniyama Mai" onto the back of the doll. "So it starts…" She said with a grin.

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><p><em><strong>I know it's short. But I was extremely tired at the time, and just wanted to finish. Lol. Hope you guys enjoyed!<strong>_

_**Mai: R&R and Comment!**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Ok, I'm getting lazy with my A/N's at the beginning of my chapters…so I'll just go right to the : Chii owns nothing related to Ghost Hunt…sadly enough.**_

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><p>I stepped inside the room where I had previously left my co-workers in a daze just moments before. I shut the door softly and just looked at everyone. I dropped my head a bit in shame as I felt two arms envelope me in a soft embrace.<p>

"I'm sorry." I heard Monk say. He was the pair of arms. "You're right. We should expect more from you than we already do. It's just that if anything had ever happened to you, we all wouldn't forgive ourselves. We worry about you. That's all. We'll make sure to involve you a lot more in our cases." I looked up at him and smiled, turning my smile to the others in the room. I walked out of his embrace and my peaceful thoughts got interrupted by the only command that could ruin the moment:

"Mai…tea." Naru commanded. Only he could ruin the moment. I grabbed onto Jun's arm and dragged her out with me, as she was trying to suppress a grin.

When we were out in the hallway heading down to the kitchen, I finally let go of my death grip on Jun's arm. She couldn't hold it in anymore. She started bursting out laughing right as I did so. I shot a glare her way.

"I'm s-sorry!" She said between laughs, gasping for breaths. "Your face w-was just s-so priceless!" She grabbed onto her sides as she continued to wail with laughter. I just glared at her a while. Then, in an instant, my glare faded into a smile. I then chimed in with her laughter.

"Ok, so maybe it was a little funny that at a time like that, the only thing that could be on his mind, is TEA." I continued to laugh as we entered the kitchen. We immediately stopped laughing when we got in the doorway. We couldn't believe our eyes. There was a message written on the wall that read:

'You're time is almost up. Thanks for the visit!'

It was written in blood, and I screamed at the sight. Jun just gaped at the message of hatred. We could hear footsteps coming down the hallway. Monk and John appeared in the doorway.

"Mai!" Monk yelled. He was immediately silent when he saw the message. I turned away from it, immediately knowing what it meant, but leaving the others to their thoughts.

"Let's get this cleaned up. Mom will be home soon, and I don't want her freaking out over this." Jun said. We all nodded and decided that the answer will come soon enough.

We got it all cleaned up in a matter of minutes. When Jun's mother got home, she treated us all to supper, and by the time we were done, we decided that it was time to sleep for the night. We would investigate further tomorrow.

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><p><em>I looked at the area around me. I couldn't see much, except for a faint light. I figured that I would follow it to see where it led.<em>

"_Mai…" I heard a soft voice call my name. I turned around to see Gene's smiling face at me._

_"Gene. Hi." I said with a smile._

_"Are you alright?" he asked, concern flooding his voice, but his smile never leaving his face._

"_I'm fine!" I said with a bigger smile. "My last dream just scared me a bit. That's all. But, why are you here?" I asked, puzzled._

_"I'm here to warn you about Tsukiki." He said with a straight face, that magnificent smile disappearing. "She's planning something. I'm not so sure what, but I know it can't be good." He finished._

_"What do you mean?" I asked, a bit surprised that a little girl could be planning something. "She's just a little girl. What could she be doing that could harm anyone?" He smiled sadly and said,_

_"I'm not sure, I just know it's not good. I know it's hard to believe, but you've got to trust me on this. Just, at least be cautious around her." He finished with a smile. I smiled back and nodded. Just at that moment, a bright light flooded my vision and I was propelled into what looked like a child's bedroom._

_"What the-" I was cut off by the sound of giggling. I looked over and noticed a little girl in an elementary schoolgirl uniform. I watched as she was making what looked like a doll._

"_It's ok, you're almost done, Shikira." Said the little girl. A bit of a malicious tone in her voice. I shrugged it off and watched. "We're going to make her pay for what she did to me today!" She finished off, her voice rising with anger, as she held up the doll that resembled a look of a brunette-haired schoolgirl. It looked professionally made. I opened my mouth to speak when I heard the door slam open._

_"Miyami! How many times must I tell you to stop spending so much time making these good-for-nothing rag-dolls and focus on your schoolwork! Give me that doll!" It must have been the father. I recognized his face from my last dream. He grabbed for the doll when the little girl dodged out of the way and ran out the door. The man followed, as did I, chasing little Miyami down the hallway. She ran down the steps and then out the door. "MIYAMI!" The man yelled, watching his daughter run down the street._

_The scene faded once again to what seemed like a park. I looked over and saw the little girl sitting on a park bench, the doll in her arms. I noticed another girl running up to her with a huge smile on her face. I walked closer to hear the conversation._

_"Hey, Shi-chan!" Miyami said with a smile. "I have something for you!" She held out the doll. The other little girl smiled and gladly took the doll._

_"Thanks, Miyami-chan! It looks just like me!" She said with a smile. And it's true, the doll did look exactly like Shikira._

_"Hey, do you want to play with me and my doll?" Miyami asked, as she pulled out a doll that looked exactly like her._

_"Sure!" The girl replied and they started playing. They stayed like that for a while before Miyami looked around to make sure they were alone and said,_

_"Hey, wanna see a trick?" Miyami said as she looked up at Shikira and smiled. Shikira cocked her head to the side and nodded. Miyami lifted her hand above her doll and the doll stood up on it's own._

_"Whoooaaahh!" Shikira exclaimed in amazement. "How are you doing that?" Miyami just smiled and her doll grabbed Shikira's doll by the hand and picked it up, making said doll stand up on it's own as well. She made both run around chasing each other, both girls laughing in amusement. Just then, both dolls stopped and just stood there staring at each other. Then, without hesitation, Miyami's doll jumped on top of Shikira's doll. The doll grabbed a hold of the other's throat and started choking it. I looked over, and noticed Shikira on the ground holding on to her throat._

_"H-help…m-me!" She managed to say. Miyami just stood over top of the struggling girl and smirked. She then lifted her hand over top of the girl's mouth, and moved it in a motion that looked like she was pulling something out of Shikira's body. Shikira wretched and arched her back, grunting in pain. A light came out of her mouth and Miyami placed it inside Shikira's doll. Both dolls stopped moving and Miyami picked both up._

_"That will teach you to publicly humiliate me in front of the entire school ever again." She said with a glare towards the doll. "Now, which shelf to put you on at home…hope Daddy lets me back in the house…" She giggled to herself, which in turn, turned into maniacal laughter. She walked back down the road to her home. I watched in horror. Everything faded after that._

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><p>I shot up out of bed, sweat dripping from my forehead. I looked around the room and noticed that everyone was still asleep. I looked at the clock on the bedside table: 5:30 A.M. I sighed, got out of bed, threw some clothes on, and decided to go down to base. I knew I wouldn't be able to fall back to sleep, and if I did, I would probably sleep longer than I would want to.<p>

I opened the door quietly to find Lin, typing away as usual, and Naru, asleep in his chair, his head tilted to the side and his book on his lap. I noticed his coat on a nearby chair, and hung it around him. I walked over to Lin and quietly spoke.

"Would you like some tea? I'm going to make some for myself and Naru. I'm sure he'll be waking up anytime now." I whispered quietly, as to not wake said person up. Lin just smiled lightly and nodded. I smiled widely and skipped out of the room quietly, shutting the door softly behind me. I walked to the kitchen to find Jun making some breakfast for herself. I smiled as I came in.

"Hey, Jun!" I said with a bright smile. However, she didn't look up or change her expression which read 'scared to death' on it. I frowned a bit and tapped her on the shoulder. She flinched at the touch.

"Ah!" she jumped back a bit and lost her balance for a minute, which I in turn, caught her arm, allowing her to regain her balance.

"Jun! What's wrong?" I asked. She just looked away. I put my hand on her shoulder. She then looked at me with frightened eyes.

"I…I was walking last night through the hallway. I had woken up and needed a drink. So I decided to go downstairs and get one. But, as I was passing Tsukiki's room, I happened to notice a light on. I couldn't help but look in through a crack in her door. She was on the floor finishing up what looked like a doll. I couldn't hear everything she said, but I did hear her say something like 'You remind me so much of her. I'll fix that. I'll rid you of the world so you don't humiliate me ever again.' She said this and giggled to herself. Finally, I had seen what she was holding. I could be mistaken, but it looked…just like…YOU." She said this with tears welling up in her eyes. I stepped back a bit to take all this in.

"I think we should tell Naru. I also had a dream last night that may explain all of that." I said. She nodded and walked with me back to base.

"Where have you been? I need my tea." Said the familiar voice I secretly loved to hear every day. I walked over and sat down on a nearby couch.

"I need to tell you guys something. I had a dream last night. And Jun witnessed something that related to that dream." I said before I started explaining things. I had to start over half-way into the explanation as Monk and Ayako walked in. And once more when everyone else simultaneously walked in at once. When I was finished, they all just looked at me like I was crazy. I also explained the dream I had on my way here. Which, won me a number of shocked and confused looks.

"So, she created dolls and entrapped the souls of her enemies inside of them." Ayako thought out loud.

"It doesn't sound TOO insane…but is it even possible to do that?" Monk asked.

"It is possible to lure a spirit into a doll to take possession of it. Although, entrapping them so that they cannot get out, nor make any communication doesn't make sense. And we also have to take in the consideration of how she did it." Naru explained. He went back to his files and looked through them before Jun spoke up,

"Oh, Shibuya-san." She started. "I did some research on this house." She handed a yellow folder with some papers in it to Naru. "It seems that there was indeed a murder here. A mother and father, and their 9 year-old daughter. It's just like in Mai's dream from before. The man killed the mother and child, and then turned the knife on himself after he had realized what he had done. I also did research on the child and the father. The Father was known for his mood swings and was announced legally, that he was mentally unstable. The child, wasn't much better. She was known all around school for being anti-social, and barely associated with anybody. On top of that, there were countless rumors of her being humiliated, and then the child who did the humiliating going missing a few days after. She was thought to be the cause of it all. I'm pretty sure that's explained already in Mai's dream." Jun explained all this.

"Was there anything about the mother?" Naru asked, not looking away from the papers.

"Apparently she was the normal one of the three. She acted like a normal mother would do. So, I assume she really didn't have anything to do with all this." Jun stated.

"Thank you, Jun." Naru said. "We should question the little girl for further information." Jun cringed at this.

"All do respect, Mr. Shibuya, but I'd really much prefer that no one else associate with Tsukiki." Jun objected. I looked over at her, her expression unchanging.

"That is why I'm not having anyone new doing the asking. MAI will be doing the questioning." Naru explained. "Since Mai has been in conversations with Tsukiki before, it shouldn't be that hard for Mai getting close to her." He finished. I looked over at him, unsure what to say, but nodded. Jun looked at me like I was crazy, but kept her opinion to herself.

"Alright. I'll do it." I said. And with that, I walked out of the room confidently, and headed up the stairs to the child's bedroom. What would happen if I just barged in like this? Guess I'll find out…

"Tsukiki-chan?" I said as I opened her door. I only saw a glimpse of her, before I saw a blunt object flying at me.

"AH!" I screamed as I watched the object fly at me with amazing speed.

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><p><em><strong>HAHA! RANDOM CLIFFY! Love those…^_^. I'm sorry that I did a lot of rambling in this chapter…AGAIN…I'll do better next time. Although, I did like the idea of trapping souls inside of dolls…YAY!<strong>_

_**Mai: WHAT? YOU BETTER MAKE ME HAVE FAST REFLEXES OR I'M GONNA BE KNOCKED OUT! I wasn't knocked out at all on this case yet! Let's keep it at that!**_

_**Chii: Oh please…you overreact too much, Mai. Just say your line, and MAYBE, if I get enough reviews, I'll make sure you don't get hit with the object…that's a BIG 'maybe' ^_^.**_

_**Mai: O.o" RATE, REVIEW, AND COMMENT! REVIEW! PLEASE! I DON'T WANNA GET KNOCKED OUT! PLEASE!**_

_**Chii: *knocks Mai over the head with a shoe***_

_**Mai: X_X**_

_**Chii: . You didn't see that…CIAO! ^_^**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Ok, not cool! Me need reviews! I know my story's only been up for only about a week…but, I'd expect a few more reviews than this! ." PLEASE! REVIEWS!**_

_**Mai: Yes, please! If you don't review, Chii will kill me off at the end of the story by a random incident! I beg of you! For my sake! PLEASE! Oh, and Chii owns nothing Ghost Hunt-related. Enjoy!**_

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><p>Whatever it was that flew at me, wasn't as hard as I expected it to be, but it still hurt on impact. I fell to the floor clutching onto my head.<p>

"Ow…" I said weakly as I lay on the floor rubbing my head. I looked up to see Tsukiki staring down at me, her face expressionless as usual. She then put a hand out to help me up.

"Sorry…" She said monotonically. She helped me back up, and picked up the object that was thrown at me. Apparently, it was one of her shoes.

"It's…ok, but why did you throw that at me?" I asked, a bit scared to ask.

"It wasn't exactly directed at you…I just thought it was one of my enemies coming in. Like my sister, or one of the other maids. I guess I should have known it was an outsider, because they would know better than to open my door without permission." She said. She put her shoe back in her closet.

"I see you've increased your doll collection." Noticing the new shelf on the wall. She just looked up from her book slightly, nodded, before looking back down. I looked at her book. "So…what are you reading?" I tried to look at her book when she slammed it shut before I got a chance to see what it was.

"There must be a reason for you being here." She said with a blank expression. "Now, what is it? If there's nothing more, you may take your leave." She got up and put her book back on her shelf.

"Oh, yes." I said. "I want to ask you some questions. It is to my understanding, that none of these experiences are effecting you at all. I just wanted to ask you, personally, if that is true." She just looked over at one of the shelves of dolls. Then she looked away and said,

"Have you ever just wanted your enemies to just…disappear?" She said this and looked at me, expressionless, but sadness still in her eyes. I just frowned a bit at the question. She just furred her eyebrows a bit. "Yes, I have been effected, somewhat. But, I won't go into details. Let's just say that Miyami doesn't enjoy the company here." My eyes just grew wider at the statement. She smiled a bit and simply said, "If there's nothing else, you may leave."

"No…" I started. "Nothing else."

"Oh, before you leave, I have something for you." She walked over to a desk that had some box on it. She handed said box to me. I was going to open it when she stopped me. "Don't open it yet. Wait a while before opening it. Also, make sure you open it around your friends. I think they'll enjoy it as well." She said all of this with the same expression and tone of voice. I hesitantly nodded, before turning and walking out of the room.

I closed the door behind me, experiencing the strange feeling of someone staring at you from behind. I shook it off, and started walking down the hall, when I heard a strange sound, like footsteps behind me. I whipped around, but saw nothing. I had just gotten to the top of the staircase, when I heard it again, but this time louder. I looked down the hallway, and saw a small girl, sitting at the end of the hall. She was wearing a white dress, and had pink hair. She was carrying, what looked like, a doll that had been just previously bought. I just stared at her as she stood up and looked at me. Well, she was making it seem like she was looking at me, for there were no eyes, just black pits. Black pits that, if they stared long enough, would burn holes in my eyes.

"Miyami! You must leave this place!" I shouted. "You are not welcomed here!" She just stood there. Then, without hesitation, she was running towards me. I stood my ground and went to perform the Nine Cuts on her, but, instead of attacking, she just stood in front of me. She had blood all over her. It was dripping all over the floor. But, more than the blood, I noticed the tears streaming from her face. I softened my glare as she looked up with me, not with black pits anymore, but with bright, blue eyes. She opened her mouth to speak.

"Please…please, forgive me. I never meant to hurt all those people. My father, he tortured me so much. He beat me and mother. He sent rumors to the school about me, which started the humiliating scenes. I only wanted to teach them all a lesson…" She then put on a slight smirk. "They all needed to be taught a lesson. So I trapped their souls inside those dolls. But…" She frowned a bit more. "I know now, that what I did was wrong. Before I realized this, I had convinced Tsukiki that all humanity was evil, and needed to be taught a lesson. So I taught her how to transfer spirits into inanimate objects, such as dolls. But, now that I taught her this, she won't stop until everyone is trapped. I never meant for this to go this far. I just wanted some people to be taught a lesson. And, that box you holding, I want you to open it." She gestured towards said box. I was a bit hesitant at first.

"Do you know what's in it?" I asked, not really wanting to know the answer. She just smirked. I nodded in understanding. I opened the box slowly, to find what I was expecting to find: a doll that resembled myself. I just looked at the girl, who was now twice her size and lulling over top of me. I jumped back at the sight.

"Fool!" She said in a demonic voice. "Did you actually believe that I never meant to hurt anyone!" She raised her hand over top of my doll and the doll stood up in the box. I dropped the box and started running down the stairs. I was about halfway down, when something pushed me. Naturally, I fell the rest of the way down.

"AHHH!" I screamed as I tumbled down the flight of stairs, painfully. I wretched in pain as I hit the bottom of the stairs. I lay there on the floor, twitching in pain. I don't know how, but I somehow had the doll that was made for me back in my hand. I saw Miyami come up beside me and kneel down to speak with me.

"So…" She started. "How do you like your doll? I had Tsukiki made it special just for you. You know…you look so much like her…" She said through her teeth. She tried to take the doll from my hand, but I somehow managed to swipe it away from her grip. She smirked and said, "Bad move…" She flung herself forward and gripped my neck tightly.

"AHH-!" I was cut off by the choking sensation of her gripping my neck. I just happened to hear someone yelling my name, but didn't know who. Then I heard the Nine Cuts being recited, and the grip around my neck disappearing.

"MAI!" I heard two voices yell. When I came back to reality, I knew who it was. Naru and Jun had made it just in time to stop Miyami in the act. Naru knelt down quickly and embraced me tightly. I could have sworn I felt a tear drip on my hand, so I looked up and noticed his face was a bit moist from a single tear. I, in turn, started sobbing myself. I buried my face into his shirt and sobbed. Jun just knelt down beside me and started stroking my back lightly, as Naru tightened the embrace between us. When I finally calmed down enough, I reluctantly moved away from his embrace. Jun looked over and noticed something laying on the floor.

"Hey…what's this?" She got up and walked over to the object. She picked it up, and her face just went completely white. I tried to get up, but failed miserably. Naru helped me up this time and I walked weakly over to Jun. She just looked at me with sorrowful eyes. I reached over and took the doll from her.

"I think…" I started. "I should hold on to this." Jun just dropped her head slightly.

"Mai…" Jun started. "I don't think that's such a good idea. If that's Miyami's way of hurting you, I don't think it should even be in existence." I was weakly leaning against Naru, trying to gather up the strength to speak again.

"I know." I said. "But… If I keep it in possession…Miyami might not be able…to get a hold…of it…" I was waving in and out of consciousness. The last thing I remember was being lifted off my feet, and rushed into a room.

_I was in the second-floor hallway of the house._

_"Where am I now?" I asked myself. Just then, I heard a cry in pain coming from up the hallway a bit. I rushed towards the room said sound came from. I unconsciously went "through" the door to the room and stopped dead in my tracks._

_"STUPID CHILD!" a voice rung out. "I TOLD YOU TO STOP MAKING THESE DAMN DOLLS! THEY'RE A WASTE OF TIME!" The man picked up his trembling daughter by the collar of her shirt and threw her against the wall. I cringed at the sight._

_"STOP IT! PLEASE!" I screamed. The man turned around and glared at me. He then ran towards me and gripped me by the neck. He picked me up in the air and started slamming me against the wall. I struggled to break free, but failed. I then heard the man cry out in pain, and let go of my neck. I dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. I looked up only to see the young child running a pair of sewing scissors into the man's side._

_"YOU….Little…" the man managed to say, before rushing out the door. The child just dropped to her knees in the middle of the room and started sobbing._

_"You'll pay…" She said. "You'll ALL pay!" She threw the sewing scissors towards me unconsciously but everything faded before they reached me._

_I was still on my knees gasping for breath. I then felt a hand on my back, rubbing up and down. I looked up to see Gene staring at me with a concerned look._

_"Gene!" I exclaimed, before wrapping my arms around his neck, and sobbing silently. He just wrapped his arms around me softly and consoled me._

_"I'm sorry for not pulling you out sooner." He said. "I just thought it would be appropriate for you to see the full scene. I apologize." He said. I just looked up at him and said,_

_"It's fine. It's just a bit frightening to see a child and her mother treated like that." I looked back in the direction of the scene. Gene just leaned down and placed a soft kiss on my cheek. I looked up at him and he just smiled._

_"Time to wake up now." He said. "I promise you'll be safe as long as your connection from the doll Miyami gave you and yourself doesn't break." I nodded and everything faded away again._

I opened my eyes slowly. I managed to turn my head slightly and look over to find Naru asleep in the chair next to me. I smiled at the sight and noticed Jun asleep on the window seat. I sat up extremely slowly as to make sure not to injure myself anymore. I walked over and placed a nearby sweater over Jun's shoulders, and walked back over to Naru. I noticed his jacket laying on the floor and I bent down to pick it up, when I lost my balance and fell sideways. A pair of hands braced my fall. When I finally regained my composure, I noticed Naru holding on to me frantically.

"You should really be more careful when you're injured. I thought you were smarter than that." He smirked. I was too tired to argue with him, so I just smiled lightly. He helped me back up and was going to help me back to the bed, when I stopped him.

"If it's ok with you, I'd like to sleep the rest of the night…in your lap." I requested. I blushed a bit at my request, but felt a bit better when I noticed a small bit of redness in Naru's face as well.

He led me over to the chair, and carefully placed me in his lap. I just laid my head against his shoulder and cuddled up against him. I looked up at him and smiled lightly, which in turn, he smiled at me as well. And not just a regular smile. A sincere smile that I would remember for the rest of my life. I then, without thinking, lifted myself up and captured our lips in a passionate kiss that I would also remember for the rest of my life. We stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity before we both simultaneously fell asleep.

_**Well, there ya have it. Sorry it took me so long to update. School and after-school stuff interfere with my life…ugh…hope you enjoyed. It seemed like I rambled a lot on this one again. So, if it seemed like that, I apologize.**_

_**Mai: Took ya long enough…Injure me enough? Oi…R&R and Comment! ^_^**_

_**Chii: Ciao! ^_^**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Wow…sorry guys. Been FOREVER since I last updated… School and various after-school activities have prohibited me from working on this story. I haven't had a full weekend yet since school started due to various forms of flooding and cancelling football games, postponing them until Saturdays. But I promise I will have this done in the next few chapters…I know it kind of goes all over the place with the storyline, and since I haven't worked on it for a while, I kind of lost track of the plot. So I'll try to wrap it up. But I promise I will do my best in this next chapter!**_

_**Mai: Chii owns nothing related to Ghost Hunt.**_

_**Chii: That gets more and more depressing each time you say that… V_V**_

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><p>I opened my eyes slowly, adjusting to the brightness of the room. I noticed that I was back in my bed, and Naru was no where to be seen, neither was Jun. I sat up, got to my feet, and slowly made my way out of the room to the kitchen. I made it to the staircase and decided to go much slower.<p>

I took it one step at a time, making sure to keep good hold of the railing. I was almost halfway down, when my foot slipped from underneath me, and I dropped a bit. I didn't fall down the stairs though. I immediately caught hold of the railing and pulled myself up slowly. I finally reached the bottom of the staircase and left out a relieving sigh. I felt a bit better, and was able to walk normally towards the kitchen. I heard voices and quickened my step.

"Good morning everybody!" I said cheerfully. Everyone stopped their chatting and smiled widely at me as I entered the room. I noticed that everyone but one was here. "Huh? Where's Jun?" I asked. Everyone's smiles quickly faded.

"We haven't seen her all morning." Ayako stated. I looked around and several people shook their heads.

"That's strange…" I said. "She was sleeping on the window sill last night. That's the last time I saw her." We sat in silence for a bit. I decided to break it. "Well, I'm going outside to get some fresh air. I think it will do me a world of good. Be careful…" I said with a sad expression. I walked to the main hall and opened the door slowly before walking cheerfully outside. It was bright and sunny, and a perfect day for being outside.

"Hey! Mai!" I heard a voice call. I whipped around to see Jun in the same spot she was when we first met her. "How are you feeling?" She asked, before grabbing a branch and flipping over it, landing on the ground lazily on her feet, like it was nothing. I smiled.

"Fine. How about you? The others said they haven't seen you all morning. Were you out here since dawn?" I asked. She nodded.

"Yeah. I woke up in the middle of the night last night, and noticed you asleep in Shibuya's arms, so I decided to leave you two alone." She smirked at this. I just blushed. "Anyway, I went to bed last night, but could sleep. I stayed up then, and came out here when the sun finally decided to show itself. Are they worried about me?" She asked. I nodded but motioned to not worry about it.

"Don't worry. I'll just let them know later." I said. Just then, we noticed a small figure walking by the pond. "Hey, is that Tsukiki?" I asked, pointing in that direction. We both stared at the girl, who was now staggering back and forth. Jun turned completely white, and started rushing over towards her young sibling. I followed closely behind.

"Tsukiki!" Jun shouted. Just then, the small girl completely stopped walking right near the pond's edge. Jun picked up her pace and started shouting,

"Tsukiki! Get back from the pond!" Then, Tsukiki just looked at us and smiled sadly. Jun stopped dead in her tracks. The small girl turned so that her back was facing the pond, and let herself fall backwards. We couldn't believe our eyes. It seemed like it all happened so slowly. We watched in horror until we heard the horrible splash of the girl's body hitting the water. Jun then snapped back into reality, and started rushing towards the pond.

"Tsukiki!" She screamed as she dived right into the pond. I rushed over to the edge to help them both out when she emerged. But only Jun emerged. She was frantically searching for her sister. She submerged several times trying to find the poor child's body, but had no luck. She came up the last time and made her way over to the pond's shore. I held out a hand to help her up, and she sadly took it. When she was up and out, she immediately fell to her knees and started sobbing. I embraced her and consoled her quietly. We stayed like that for what seemed like forever.

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><p>We sat in the base, everyone a nervous wreck, waiting for Monk, John, Lin, and Naru to come back in from searching the pond. <em><strong>(AN. Ok, I know that I've been saying pond, but it's more of a lake now that I think about it…you can't exactly lose a body in a pond…So, from now on, it's a lake lol.) **_When a few hours went by, we started to think they'd never find her….we were wrong. Monk came in with a sad expression on his face. Jun jumped out of her seat and just stood there looking at her former younger sister. Monk just shook his head at us, and took the body into another room, away from Jun. She dropped to her knees and started crying hysterically.

"NOOO!" She cried hard, for a long time too. I eventually helped her to her feet and offered her some tea. She accepted it without expression, and sat on the window seat, staring out at her sister's watery grave. She just sat at the window with her tea, expressionless. I felt so useless. I eventually walked over to her and sat on the window seat beside her. She didn't acknowledge the fact, so I decided to try and comfort her.

"Jun…" I started. "You can guarantee, without a doubt, that we will get rid of this…"thing"…that's in your house. We'll do it for Tsukiki." I gave her a sad, but confident smile. She seemed to cringe at the mention of her sister's name, but turned her head slowly to look at me. I continued to give her a confident look of reassurance. She looked around at the others in the room, who were showing similar expressions. She stared blankly for a while before turning her head back to me. She then smiled sadly, but confidently, and nodded her head. Then, without warning, we heard the familiar sound of Jun's mother coming up the driveway. She shuddered at the thought of explaining things to her.

"What are we going to tell her…?" She asked, her voice shaking. I just placed my hand on hers. I smiled lightly and said,"We can just tell her what happened together." She nodded slowly, and we both went out to tell Takara-san what had happened.

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><p>The next day was more depressing than usual. Lin was busy typing away on his computer, going over the data we've collected over the past few days. Ayako and Masako were out looking for any other spirits (if any) and exorcising them, as were Monk and John. Naru was off conducting his own investigation and gathering any more data we might need. I was, once again, left in the room, bored to death and feeling useless as usual. I had my head rested on the table and let out a huge sigh.<p>

"Ugh…" I said. "Here I am, useless as usual, just sitting around doing nothing…" I finished. Jun just looked over from the window seat with a confused look on her face. I just chuckled and shook my head. "Nevermind." She just nodded and went over to the corner of the room and pulled out a bag behind a small shelf. She brought it back over with her and sat on the window seat. She opened it, pulling out a small laptop, and started typing away on it. I chuckled at the sight, as it felt like there were now two Lins in the room. They both just looked at me, confused. I shook my head again, and laid my head on the table again. I suddenly got quite drowsy, and decided that maybe, if I went to sleep, I'd have one of my dreams. And I did exactly that. I let myself relax to the point of falling asleep. Everything went black at that point.

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><p><em>I looked around and noticed everything was pitch black. I was expecting to see Gene right then and there, and sure enough, I noticed him walking in my direction. I smiled at him and started walking the rest of the way to him. When I reached him, I noticed that he wasn't smiling. He pointed in a direction that looked like a room. So I followed the direction and went into the room to find that I was in Tsukiki's room. Miyami was there too. I just sat back and watched.<em>

_"You're neglecting your responsibilities, Tsukiki." Miyami stated. "If you don't continue to make dolls, you are no further use to me, which means you must be eliminated." She finished. Tsukiki remained expressionless. Miyami was a bit shocked to see she wasn't even flinching, but kept her composure. She backed away from Tsukiki a bit before saying, "Fine. If you do not want to serve me anymore, I'll just kill everyone here in this house." She finished with an evil smirk, which made Tskukiki flinch back a bit._

_"No. Please, don't hurt anyone else." She said, monotonically. "I wish not for any harm to come to anyone else. But, may I ask, if you are able to make dolls, why do you need me to make them?" She asked. Miyami just smirked and said,_

_"I do not need you. In fact, I don't want you around. Either you die, or I kill everyone. Your choice." She finished with an evil laugh which made the whole room shake. Tsukiki dropped to the ground covering her head. When the room stopped shaking, she got up and said,_

_"Please! I beg of you! There must be a way I can prove my worth so that I may live! Please!" She was becoming hysterical. Miyami, however, just shook her head, and was now becoming angry._

_"No! Either you kill yourself, vermin, or I kill you AND everyone else! Now CHOOSE!" She yelled, making the room shake once again. Tsukiki cringed again and fell to the floor. I stood there watching in horror, feeling so helpless._

_Tsukiki rose from the ground after a period of thinking things over. She got up with a confident look on her face. Miyami stared at her, a smirk on her face._

_"So?" Miyami started. "Your answer?" She said, glaring at Tsukiki. Tsukiki just glared at her and said plainly,_

_"You win. I will kill myself. But you must promise not to hurt anyone else." She stated. Miyami just grinned._

_"Of course. You have my word." Miyami said with a smirk. Then, I noticed her hand go behind her back. She then, selfishly crossed her fingers. I tried to call out to Tsukiki._

_"Tsukiki! No!" I yelled. But, as soon as I said that, light flooded my vision._

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><p>I shot up from the table, sweat dripping off my forehead. The only other people in the room were Naru and Lin. They both looked at me, concern written on their foreheads. Naru got up and walked over to me quickly, sitting down next to me.<p>

"What was it this time?" Naru asked, concern filling his voice. I sighed deeply and began explaining the scenes that were just played before me.

"So…Miyami pressured Tsukiki into making the dolls, and forced her to kill herself…" Naru said. Everyone filed into the room in the middle of explaining the dream, so I had to start over multiple times so the others could catch up.

"I have a feeling that Miyami is targeting someone else now." I stated. "She double-crossed Tsukiki, we know that. So, we need to make sure that we're never alone in this house anymore…NO ONE can be alone." I finished. Things were getting more and more dangerous by the minute, and we can't have any more casualties this case… She could kill anyone. She won't stop at anyone….no one.

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><p><em><strong>Well, there ya guys go. Again, sorry for the late update. I promise that this will end within the next chapter or two. I promise.<strong>_

_**Mai: Geeze…this child's like the Devil's Child! Oh, and R&R and comment!**_

_**Chii: This needs to end soon…I want to start another story! ." Lol Ciao! ^_^**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**So, I'm back in the groove again…for now lol. Hopefully I can finish this story soon so I can start another. I'm running out of ideas for this one. *sweat drop* Hope you guys enjoyed so far!**_

_**Mai: Chii owns nothing related to Ghost Hunt…Sadly **_

_**Chii: Ugh…again, that's more and more depressing each time you say it… -_-"**_

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><p>A few days had gone by since the incident. It seemed like all progress on this case came to a standstill. Everyday, the same routine: Takara-san leaving for work in the morning, and us conducting any investigations we can, and getting nowhere. We weren't getting anything done, and it was eating away at us all. We just wanted this case to end on it's own and everything to go away. But, I think the person who wanted that the most was Jun. She was sitting in her usual spot on the window seat, typing away on her laptop, looking for any information that can be gathered on related past events on the house. Everyone else was off on their own, while we were left in the base…as usual.<p>

"What the…" Jun exclaimed quietly. I looked over at Jun who was now sitting straight up staring blankly at her computer screen. I got up and walked over to the window seat, sitting down next to Jun. I looked at the screen she was so terrified of.

"What is it…" I asked. My voice trailed off as I saw what she was so afraid of. It was a news article from a few years back about a certain child at a school being brutally humiliated in front of the entire school.

"Listen to this…" Jun started. "It says 'Local 9 year-old girl gets strung by her legs from a fence surrounding a public elementary school' Who would do something like that…? And another, '9 year-old girl gets pushed down two flights of stairs'. These children are brutal! There are several others relating to the same type of torture." We both read through a few others, in horror of the lengths these children went to in order to torture this poor child. At that moment, Naru walked in and noticed our frightened faces. He came over and looked at the computer himself. He took the computer over to a table and began jotting things down on a notepad.

"Naru, do you think these incidents may be why Miyami is acting this way?" I asked.

"Are you really that stupid that you couldn't figure that out yet?" He crudely asked. I stiffened at his sarcastic comment, but brushed it off when I noticed Takara-san coming up the driveway.

"Hey…You're mom's home early, Jun." I said. Jun looked out the window curiously.

"You're right…" She said. "Wonder what happened." Jun got up and rushed out to the main hall. When she got out there, she saw her mother in shock. She rushed up to her mother and shook her a bit to snap her out of it. "Mom! What's wrong?" She exclaimed. Her mom just staggered a bit before stating,

"Your father…isn't coming home." She said, her voice wavering. Jun stepped backwards a bit and let her mother finish. "He…is having an affair with one of his Co-workers…and won't be coming home." She finished. Jun just stood there in, what seemed like more shock than her mother. Then, without warning, she ran straight up the stairs into her bedroom and slammed the door shut. Everyone stood in silence for what seemed like forever, before Takara-san broke it solemnly.

"I think…I'll start supper…" She said softly, before heading off to the kitchen.

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><p>Supper was quiet, and a sad aura filled the air the entire time. Jun still hadn't come down from her room.<p>

"Wonder if Jun is hungry…" I thought out loud. I decided to be nice and prepare a plate for her and bring it up to her after everyone else went off on their own to do a little more investigating.

I got to Jun's door and opened it slowly. I walked in and saw Jun sitting on her window seat, looking out at the garden.

"Jun?" I started. "I brought you some supper, in case you were hungry." She looked over at me and smiled. I was a bit shocked to see her so cheerful.

"Thanks a lot, Mai!" She exclaimed cheerfully. "I'm starved, actually." She took the plate gratefully and sat on her window seat and began eating immediately. I sat down on her bed facing her.

"So…why didn't you come back down after your mom informed you of your father?" I asked. She just looked up at me before turning back to her food.

"I don't know…" She said after a while. "I kind of expected this to happen, actually. Dad was always acting strange around Mom. He also didn't tell us what kind of business trip he was going on. So this was to be expected. It just kind of surprised me that he would actually sink that low. I thought that I was just being paranoid." She looked out the window in wonder. Then she whipped her head back around cheerfully after a while. "But I'm not upset! I'm going to keep my head high and keep moving forward." She said with all the confidence in her. I smiled widely at her. Whilst her voice and expressions said that she was happy, her eyes looked sad and lonely.

"I'm glad you're taking it this easily." I said. "It took me a whole year to get over the death of both my parents." I finished with a sad smile. Jun just looked at me, concern written all over her face.

"Oh, Mai." She said. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that happened." She had a sad expression. I just shook my head.

"It's fine." I said. "I'm over it now. I have a new family now. I think of this team as my family." I smiled widely. For the next half hour or so, we sat talking in Jun's room. I explained to her the components of my make-shift family I have created within this team. We sat joking for a while before she finished up her supper. After a while, it turned out to be later than we originally thought. By the time we both decided to go back downstairs, it was about 10 o'clock.

"Wonder if anyone's still up." I thought out loud. We took Jun's plate into the kitchen and headed over to the base to see if anyone was still awake. Sure enough, Naru and Lin were the only two people in the room. We walked in, shutting the door quietly, as to not disturb them while they were working. But of course, Naru being his Narcissistic self, spoke up right away.

"What are you doing here?" He said, not looking up from some files he was holding. I stiffened at his question but walked over calmly. I heard Jun stifle a laugh behind me. I ignored it, and continued walking over to Naru and his so-called "work" hoping to be of some use.

"I wanted to see if there was anything you needed help with." I stated.

"No." Naru simply said without hesitation. I decided that it was useless and sat down at the table in the center of the room. Jun went to her usual spot on the window seat in the room and flipped open her laptop, looking through some documents that she had saved on her computer from earlier.

"Shibuya-san…" Jun started. "What do you make of this incident?" Jun took her laptop over to Naru and showed him said incident. His eyes widened a bit as he read through the document.

"Do you think it could be why she uses dolls?" Jun asked.

"Can I see the story?" I asked. Getting up to walk over, Jun handed me the laptop. I gasped at the story. I started reciting the story. " _'Local high school torments 9 year-old girl with voodoo dolls spread all across the elementary school. Reports say that about 99% of the school used them, including a few teachers. Information as to how this many dolls were created hasn't been discovered, but measures will be taken to remove all dolls.'_" I gave the laptop back to Jun, in shock of what I had just read. "This is pure torture. A 9 year-old girl getting tortured like this is just inhumane!"

"There's nothing we can do now." Jun said. "The deed is done. But what I'm trying to understand is what gave these kids the motive to do all these things?"

"Children who think humiliating non-sociable children is amusing. So any child will do it just for the amusement." Naru stated. "Why they would go to such lengths is beyond me."

"Even the teachers were in on this!" I exclaimed. "That's against the law!"

"Perhaps…but maybe the girl was just mentally unstable like her father, and did things against the students as well as the teachers." Naru stated. "Maybe she did things that the teachers wouldn't even think a child could do, and didn't want her around anymore."

We sat there going over as many possibilities that we could think of, and came to the conclusion that the girl was mentally unstable and had a few incidents where she had snapped on everyone in the school, and that's why they were all against her. I decided to go get us some tea, so we all sat there sipping tea and talking about how we were to solve this.

"I suggest we perform an exorcism on the girl's bedroom. That seems to be where the spirit resides." Naru said. Just as he said that, Lin jumped up from his chair and was staring at one of the camera screens.

"Naru!" Lin exclaimed. Naru jumped up quickly to look at the screen. His eyes widened as he looked at the temperature readings for said room, and was shocked at what he actually _saw_ in the room.

"What is it, Naru?" I asked. I soon saw what everyone was gaping at. Takara-san was in Tsukiki's room being held up by some force by her neck, and being strangled. Without thinking, I ran out the door, followed by Jun. As I was running out, I heard Naru yell 'Mai! Wait!', but ignored it completely.

When I reached the top of the staircase, I picked up my pace as I heard the brutal scream of Takara-san. I got to the door and tried to open it, with no luck. I tried ramming into it a few times with my body, still having no luck. When I was about to try again, Jun arrived and pulled me aside. She lifted her leg and gave one swift blow at the door with her leg. With amazing luck, the door gave. But, to our shock, when we went inside, there was nothing there. Nothing was out of place, nothing broken, and no one was in there.

"What…?" We both said.

"How is that possible?" I asked out loud

"We could see everything happening on the camera!" Jun exclaimed. We left after a period of looking things over, and investigating anything that might seem out of the ordinary. When we got to the top of the flight of stairs, we noticed Naru waiting anxiously at the bottom.

"Anything?" He asked eagerly. We both shook our heads. "Odd…" He thought out loud. "When you broke down the door, the video turned to static for a second or two and refocused afterward. I thought something had happened." He looked at me when he said this. His expression didn't change, but I knew he was concerned for me. I smiled warmly at this. We reached the bottom of the staircase when Naru said, "I think it's best we quarantine Tsukiki's room for the time being. Seeing as there is a lot of activity going on in there, we don't want anyone going in there and getting themselves into trouble-" Naru was cut off by the horrifying sight of Takara-san's disembodied torso falling in front of all of us.

"AAHH!" Jun's scream echoed throughout the entire house.

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><p><em><strong>Well, there ya go! Hope you enjoyed this chapter…I have nothing else to say so I'll just stop rambling now.<strong>_

_**Mai: You killed her sister AND HER MOTHER? You're on a killing spree, aren't you!**_

_**Chii: This is my way of wrapping things up, ok! You of all people should know this by now!**_

_**Mai: Very true…R&R and comment!**_

_**Chii: Ciao! ^_^**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**So, yeah…Hopefully this is the last chapter. Almost completely out of ideas for this one and getting bored of the storyline. So I'll be ending this soon enough. Hope you guys enjoyed it so far! ^_^**_

_**Mai: Chii owns no Ghost Hunt related topics.**_

_**Chii: Disclaimers are depressing…8(**_

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><p>Jun's scream echoed throughout the house for a few minutes before she dropped to her knees.<p>

"M-Mom…?" She managed to stifle out. "Mom…" I had cowered behind Naru, who even himself was stricken with disbelief at the lengths this spirit will go. Suddenly, we heard what sounded like footsteps. They didn't sound like they were coming from a specific place, as much as the sound was surrounding us. It went on for a couple minutes, before stopping completely. Jun was on the floor, whiter than a ghost, knelt near the body (or what was left of it) of her deceased mother. I went up to her and knelt down beside her.

"Jun?" I said. It seemed to finally bring her out of her shock, for when I said her name, she dived into me. She sobbed long and hard as I softly embraced her, trying to comfort her. We heard footsteps coming from down the hall. Monk, Lin, and John appeared, all sharing the same frightened expression as us all. The three of them stood there, shocked at the sight, before coming over and pulling Jun and I to our feet. Monk whispered to me to take Jun into another room. I quickly complied as I herded the trembling girl back to the base, looking over my shoulder to see the men quickly cleaning up what remained of Takara-san's body.

By the time we got to the base, Jun was now hyperventilating. I brought her over to the window seat and tried calling her name multiple times to snap her out of it.

"Jun!" I yelled. "Jun! Snap out of it!" But failed attempts only followed. Finally, I had to smack her face lightly to get her attention. This seemed to work because she ceased her hyperventilation immediately. "Jun…I understand how you must feel right now. But you need to stay calm. Getting too excited will only appease the spirit's appetite even more. We need to deal with the problem right away." I finished with a confident expression plastered on my face. I wasn't going to let Jun give up this easily. Finally she nodded her head slowly, and reverted to staring out the window. I sat next to her for a while, before being a bit startled by Monk entering the room, followed by the other three men. Ayako and Masako left a while ago, due to other personal matters that needed to be taken care of. With us down two members, we're going to focus even harder on the situation at the time. This isn't going to be easy, and this last event doesn't make it any easier.

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><p>After a few hours of staring at inactive camera screens, we all were getting more and more tense and anxious for this case to just end. Jun, typing away on her computer to keep her mind off things, was probably the worst out of all of us. She looked like she was about to snap any moment. I decided to lighten the tension in the room by trying to be the peacemaker for once.<p>

"I'm gonna go make some tea. Anyone want any?" I asked. I got some form of yes from everybody, and didn't even wait for Naru to give his usual "humph" of an answer. I quickly left the room, wanting to get out of the horrible aura-filled room.

I was on my way to the kitchen when I heard a second set of footsteps matching my own. I shuttered at the thought of encountering that spirit once again. I quickened my step, which in turn the second set of footsteps did the same. I eventually found myself running to the kitchen in a panic. I got to the kitchen and the footsteps continued toward the room, I waited right inside the room around the corner for the footsteps to reach the room. When they did, I jumped into the doorway, only to run straight into Jun. We both ended up being propelled backwards."Jun!" I exclaimed once I regained composure. I got up quickly to help her up. "Jun, what are you doing? You scared me half to death!" I scolded her.

"I'm sorry…I didn't really try to." She apologized. I cooled down after she still looked a bit shaken up.

"It's ok." I said. "Want to help me fix tea for everyone?" I asked. She nodded and proceeded to get cups and saucers for everyone, while I put the kettle on to boil. Jun was scavenging through a cabinet for a tray to place all the teacups on. When the kettle started whistling the familiar sound that we're all used to by now, I poured all the cups and placed tea leaves in each cup. While we waited for the tea to steep, Jun started up a conversation.

"So…Mai…how long did it take you to get over your parents' deaths?" She asked. I was a bit surprised at the question. But quickly responded.

"Well…I'm not quite sure." I said. "I knew that I wasn't very open the rest of middle school. But, after I left middle school and went to high school, I finally realized that it's time to move on, and take life head-on. There's no use in mourning over the past and not treasure what you have in life already." I smiled sadly. Jun just looked at me and didn't say a word. She smiled a sad smile and embraced me lightly. I returned it and smiled at her. We finished up the tea and quickly walked back to base, as to make sure the others weren't getting worried that we were gone for too long.

"Sorry we took so long." I said as we entered the room. I dispersed the cups of tea to everyone in the room, before sitting down at the table in the center of the room with my own. "Any new leads?" I asked.

"Not one…" Monk said solemnly. Everyone else shook their heads. I sighed heavily and threw my head on the table.

"If you keep doing that, you're going to become even more stupid than you are. Then there would be no need for you around my place of business." Naru jeered. I shot my head up and glared hard at him before standing up abruptly and walking over next to Lin to observe the monitors. I noticed out of the corner of my eye a small smirk on his face, but calmly disregarded it.

It felt like I was staring at the monitors for hours, before I noticed something. I got a bit closer to the screen that was set up in Tsukiki's room. When I saw what it was, I jumped backwards so hard that I almost hit my head against the table.

"Mai! What's wrong?" Monk said kneeling quickly next to me. I sat there, staring at the screen with disbelief.

"No…" I said. My voice shaky. "It can't be…" I was almost in tears as I watched what laid before me.

"What?" Monk said. "It can't be what?" He was shaking me to try and get me to answer. But all I did was stare at the screen. Naru looked at the screen but what he said next, I did not expect to hear."Mai…there's nothing there."I just cringed at the statement, and looked at the screen in astonishment.

"What do you mean 'there's nothing there', Naru!" I yelled. "Do you not see them!" I asked.

"See who, Mai?" Monk asked. I couldn't believe it. They couldn't see them.

Without thinking, I got up and ran straight out of the room. I could hear several other sets of footsteps and various voices shouting for me to stop, but I just kept running. Before I knew it, I was standing outside Tsukiki's bedroom. When I heard the others running up the stairs, I opened the door with ease, and rushed in.

"Mai! Come back!" I heard a voice yell. I didn't turn around to see who it was. I was concerned with only one other thing in the room.

"Mom…? Dad…?" I asked, my voice still shaking. The two spirits stood before me smiling lightly. I ran up to them and embraced them tightly. "I can't believe this…" I said between sobs. Suddenly, I heard loud pounding on the door. I quickly watched as Monk and Naru, both, knocked down the door.

"MAI!" Naru yelled. "GET AWAY! Those are not your parents!" He was yelling frantically, his stoic figure now gone. I felt a hand on my shoulder, looked up, and saw my father smiling down on me. Then, I looked down at his hand, which now was morphing into some creature's hand with large claws. I screamed loudly, and tried to get away, but my "mother" placed her hand on my other shoulder, which resembled that of my father's. They both gripped my shoulders hard, before propelling me into the wall, and surprisingly through it into the hallway.

"MAI!" I faintly heard Naru and Monk yell. I felt someone holding me up, but couldn't make out who. I could hear the faint sound of Monk starting his familiar mantra, and John his prayer. I finally regained my vision back, and noticed Naru holding me up. I quickly jumped back up and rushed back over to the doorway to watch what was going on. Lin had just whistled for his shiki to join him. But, none of their attempts were working. Monk and John were both knocked back on their feet, while Lin and his shiki were knocked to the floor.

"No…!" I exclaimed softly. Next thing I knew, I was in the room chanting the mantra that Monk had taught me. Then, reciting the Nine Cuts. "Rin! Pyou! Tou! Shah! Kai! Gene! Retsu! Zai! Zen!" I finished the nine cuts with some success, but very little. While in the midst of all this, my so-called "Parents" morphed together and revealed only to be Miyami in disguise. She jumped back a bit, but quickly regained her composure.

"Stop this! Please!" I screamed at her. Naru appeared behind me and just glared at the spirit. Miyami smirked, and with a simple wave of her hand, sent me spiraling across the room, landing right next to Lin. Naru just kept his eyes on the spirit, but cringed when he heard the painful yelp when I hit the floor. He had that look in his eye from back when he last used his Qigong. We knew what was coming. I tried to get up, but failed every time.

"Naru…!" Lin exclaimed weakly. "Don't do it! You know what will happen!" I tried again to get up, this time succeeding. I ran over to Naru quickly and tried to stop him, only to be propelled backwards again, this time straight into Lin. Luckily, he was able to catch me.

A breeze started up around Naru, and everything started looking distorted and warped. Being able to hear was not an option now, as there was loud ringing everywhere. Naru raised his arm above his head and a light formed as he made a fist with his hand. Miyami smirked at this entire scene, as she looked like she was about to charge at Naru. Naru suddenly flung his arm downward at the same time as Miyami started charging at him. They both got a blow, and was enveloped in smoke and dust. We couldn't see a thing.

"NARUU!" I screamed. I got up weakly, but was stopped by Lin, who motioned for me to stay put. I hesitantly complied. When the smoke cleared, Miyami was nowhere to be found. We were glad about that. But, all of our hearts stopped when we saw Naru laying on the floor, lifeless. Lin got up quickly and ran over to him, listening for a heart beat. When he heard nothing, he tried to revive our narcissistic boss, with no luck. Suddenly, we heard what sounded like a small child laughing.

"Pitiful fool…" Miyami hissed. She was standing at the other side of the room, obviously weakened by the blow, but still physically there. Then, we heard quiet mumbling, and noticed someone standing in the doorway. It was Jun. She was dressed in a priestess's gown, and mumbling something under her breath. Miyami seemed to react to this. She was holding her head in pain. Jun started walking towards Miyami, still chanting under her breath. When she got only a few inches from the now cowering Miyami, she pulled out something we didn't even expect to see: A doll that resembled Miyami.

"No!" Miyami exclaimed. "No, please! Anything but that!" She was hysterical, but Jun stood her ground. She knelt down to the small child.

"You killed my mother…and my only sister…" She started, her voice deep and sinister. "You need to leave this place." She continued to chant whatever it was until Miyami was almost completely powerless. She then held the doll up to her. There was a flash of light, and Miyami was completely absorbed by the doll. All was quiet afterward.

The heavy atmosphere seemed to lift completely after all that had gone on. We were all frozen for a few minutes, but quickly rushed over to our boss's, now, lifeless body. I walked over slowly, and knelt down next to Lin who was holding onto Naru. I looked into my former boss's eyes. Those grey, lifeless, steely eyes. I leaned over and gave him one last kiss, before placing my hand on his face to close his eyes. Jun walked over, and held the doll out for Monk to look at. He took it cautiously.

"Don't worry…" She said solemnly. "It's completely safe. She's completely sealed inside what she created so long ago." Monk nodded.

We sat in the room for a while longer, before heading downstairs to strike camp. Naru, we freshly buried outside by a beautiful cherry blossom tree, and had a mini-service for him. It suddenly felt so nostalgic, in a way. It somehow reminded me of my parents' funerals those few years back. We had all the equipment and tools packed up within an hour. With that done, we left the house behind in our most shocking case, ever.

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><p>A few months went by since the case ended. Jun was now living with me, since she couldn't possibly live in such a big house by herself. I offered her to live with me after everything happened, and offered her a job at SPR. With Naru gone, things have been a bit slow lately, and the office seems lonely and empty without him there. I'm going to miss the same line he says every day that has been a ritual ever since day one: "Mai, tea!" My eyes were tearing up just thinking about it.<p>

"Mai?" Jun said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "You ok? You'd better hurry up, or we'll be late for work." I wiped my face quickly and nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said cheerfully, trying to hide my tear-stained face. She smiled sadly."It's ok." She started. "Even though I only knew him for a short time, I miss him, too." I smiled and embraced her in a soft hug, before turning and heading out the door.

When we got to the office, everything was silent. Naru's office was turned into a office/conference room for myself and Jun to work in. There were two desks, each with laptops on them, and a set of chairs and table for questioning and interview sessions with clients. Jun went immediately to this room, while I fixed some tea for us all.

I delivered Jun's tea to her, and she greatly accepted it. I placed my cup on my desk and turned to go deliver Lin's tea to him.

I knocked lightly on his door to tell him that I was entering. I walked in, and for once, found Lin NOT typing on his infamous computer. He was hunched over in his chair with his elbows on the desk and his hands on his face. I walked over and placed the cup of tea next to him on his desk. He didn't move. I wanted to say something, but couldn't, so I turned to go back out. Then, I heard what sounded like a silent sob. Sure enough, Lin had finally broke. He was quietly sobbing into his hands. I walked over to him, and placed an arm around his shoulders. I spoke quietly to him to try and comfort sat like that for a while. After he finally calmed down a bit, he looked over at me and smiled.

"Thank you, Mai…" He said quietly. I smiled and enveloped him in a tight hug. To my surprise, he accepted it, and placed his arms around me as well. I let go and smiled softly at him, tears running down my face. He wiped them from my face, before I got up and left, a smile still plastered on my face. I went over to the next room with Jun and sat down at my desk. She turned around in her chair and smiled at me.

"So?" She started. "Any new cases today?"

"No, not today…business has been kind of slow…I'm wondering if it'll even stay running…" I thought out loud. Jun frowned.

"I sure hope nothing happens to business." She said. "I'm starting to enjoy kicking the crap out of spirits!" She said jokingly. I just laughed. It's nice to have someone my age to joke around with at work. I just hope that things can stay this way…I feel like my family's falling apart all over again. But, I won't let that happen. As long as we all stay together, nothing will happen.

I finished going through some paperwork, and put it all into a file. I took a marker and wrote on the tab: _Tsukiki's Pastime_. I put it in a filing cabinet that had all of our cases inside.

"Interesting name for the file." Jun said, standing behind me watching me work. I just smiled. Suddenly, we heard the door to the office open

."Hello? Is this Shibuya Psychic Research?" the voice said. Jun and I just sighed deeply, and went out to greet our next client. Here we go again.

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><p><em><strong>FINALLY! It's over…*poses triumphantly and falls backwards in exhaustion* Let me know what you guys think. PLEASE no flames for killing Naru. I thought it'd be interesting if something happened to a team member. Don't kill me!.. Well…ideas have been floating around in my head for a while, which means…*drum roll* Sequel! 8D Hope you guys enjoyed!<strong>_

_**Mai: Wow…didn't see that one coming…**_

_**Chii: That's what you always say **_

_**Mai: True…R&R and comment! Hope you guys enjoyed! Ciao!**_

_**Chii: Bai Bai! ^_^ See ya next time!**_


	9. Author Note

_**Hey ya'll! Just a few things.**_

_**First off, I was wondering if you guys wanted a sequel to this fic. I'm planning on making a MaiXLin pairing, but need your opinions first. I wasn't quite sure, considering the fact that I just killed off the boss to Shibuya, and should just make another storyline entirely; adding some pairing innuendos in it. MaiXLin are my favorite couple in this series, and I think I could build off that arc quite well, hopefully not getting into a writer's block in the middle of it all….. So, give me your ideas and opinions! Hope you guys enjoyed the last fic, and hopefully I'll be constructing a new one soon!**_

_**Ciao! ^_^**_

_**Chii-chan! (=^_^=)**_


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